Pasta, Wine & A Haunted Castle in Florence

One thing you definitely don’t expect when booking an Italian cookery class in Florence… is to be led through the darkness towards a 1,000-year-old castle at sunset.

Yet somehow, this is exactly where our latest Italian adventure took us.

As the Tuscan sun disappeared behind the hills and the cold November wind whistled through the trees, we slowly approached this enormous ancient castle perched high above Florence. To be honest, the atmosphere felt slightly surreal… and just a little chilling.

This was certainly not your average pasta-making class.

As we entered through the giant old doors, we were taken on a fascinating tour around the castle itself, a building is now mainly used for private events and intimate cookery experiences, while part of the castle has been transformed into a music school.

Amazingly, the owners still live within a small apartment hidden inside the vast historic property, continuing generations of family history connected to the castle, but then came the part that gave everyone goosebumps.

During World War II, the Germans occupied the castle, using it as a protected military base hidden among the trees high on the hillside, as we stood in one of the huge stone rooms, we were shown a fireplace where, scratched directly into the concrete, was the name “Adolf Hitler.”

Knowing who had once stood in these same rooms, walked these same corridors and warmed themselves beside the same fireplaces created a genuinely eerie feeling throughout the group.

And then… it was time to make pasta.

We headed into the castle kitchen where the wonderful Isabella greeted us with aprons, huge smiles and tables full of ingredients ready for the evening ahead.

Pasta making with the Italians

Simple ingredients, Authentic ingredients, The Italian way.

The finest Italian zero flour, fresh local eggs, fragrant mint, crunchy raw garlic, pine nuts and some of the best Parmigiano cheese imaginable all laid out before us, ready for the creation of fresh homemade pasta and pesto.

There was only one slight issue…

It was absolutely freezing.

Picture the scene:
7pm on a cold November evening…
inside a 1,000-year-old stone castle…
with no central heating…
and only one small electric heater bravely attempting to warm the room.

Yet somehow, that only added to the experience.

Wine glasses were filled.
Flour covered every surface imaginable.
And within minutes, everyone suddenly became “professional” pasta makers.

Well… at least after the first few attempts.

Once we mastered kneading the dough, it was time for the technical challenge, it was the the pasta roller machine, gently feeding the dough through again and again until achieving the perfect thickness became a surprisingly competitive affair.

Although I must admit…the ongoing wine tasting perhaps affected a few people’s handling skills slightly when it came to adding the fillings and shaping the pasta.

I’m still personally convinced my pasta creation should have won first prize.

Maybe not for appearance…
but definitely for effort and taste.

As someone who has spent most of my life working as a chef, I originally thought:
“Cookery class? Really?”

But this turned out to be one of the most memorable experiences of the entire trip.

It wasn’t just about making pasta.

It was about history, storytelling, atmosphere and discovering how deeply food and wine such part of the Italian culture.

What always fascinates me most, is the learning about the incredible history of food and wine, with pasta itself origins traced back to the 9th century, when the Arabs introduced a revolutionary food known as “itriyya” — dried strips of durum wheat — into Sicily.

Thanks to Sicily’s warm climate, it became perfect for drying and preserving, especially for long sea voyages. By the 12th century, pasta production was already thriving, with the famous Arab geographer Al-Idrisi documenting large-scale pasta manufacturing across Sicily, while Genoese merchants helped spread it throughout mainland Italy.

And standing there in a freezing ancient castle kitchen, covered in flour with a glass of wine in hand, it suddenly felt amazing to be part of a tradition that has survived for over a thousand years.

Once again, Italy managed to do something ordinary…
in a completely extraordinary way.

Because only in Italy could a simple cookery class become an unforgettable evening involving medieval castles, wartime history, incredible wine, handmade pasta and laughter echoing through ancient stone walls late into the night.

Italy… you truly never stop surprising me ✨